Man apologized for what happened, said a prayer before shooting himself, deputy says

by Gregg MacDonald

Staff Writer

This story was updated on Feb. 20, 2013.

The husband of a Reston woman found dead in her apartment on Monday killed himself in front of two Texas sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday after apologizing and praying, according to officials there.

On Tuesday, Fairfax County Police identified a woman found dead in her burning apartment as Jennifer Lynne Pearson, 38, of the 12000 block of Waterside View Drive in Reston. Pearson was pregnant at the time of her death and had suffered trauma to her upper body, police said.

Firefighters were called to the apartment Pearson shared with her husband, Timothy Conner, at about 6:15 a.m. Monday after neighbors reported smoke coming from the locked apartment, said Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Shelley Broderick. “The fire department forced entry into the apartment where they discovered an adult female deceased in the apartment,” she said Monday.

A search warrant filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court said that police were in the process of tracing a cell phone belonging to Conner. On Wednesday, officials from the Bandera County Sheriff’s Department said that Fairfax County police notified them that Conner had family there and asked them to be on the lookout for Conner’s car.

“I assigned two deputies to look for it on Tuesday and they pulled up behind him,” said Chief Deputy Matt King of the Bandera County Sheriff’s Department.

King said that Conner — with deputies following him — drove to a home where his mother and stepfather lived, pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. “He had a gun to his head when he stepped out,” King said. “He said something about being very sorry for what happened, and that he wanted see his mother. He then said a prayer and shot himself.”

Conner was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where he died from a gunshot wound to the head, King said.

On Wednesday, Fairfax County Police said that police detectives investigating the homicide no longer felt there was any public safety threat, and that they would not be seeking any additional suspects in the case.